Author 



^^^^O/" 




o 

7L 
O 



Title 



•^ **s 



.£........ 

311....... 



Imprint. 



19—47372-2 OPO 



AN EULOGY 



ON 



JOHN ADAMS, 

AND 

THOMAS JEFFERSON; 

FHONOUNCnb BT REQUEST 

0^ THE COM.M^.y COUNCIL OF ALBA.YY, 

AT THE 
PUBI.IG COMXCEZaORATZOK OF •jfUEtB. DEATHS, 

filELD IN THAT CITY, 
OJV MOJ^DAY THE 31st OF JULYr 182:6. 



BY WILLIAM ALEXANDER DUER 

n 



ALBANY: 

^KlNTfeD AT THE OFFICE OP THS NATIOSAL OBSERVti;. 
18'^ 



IN COMMON COUNCIL, r 

Albany, 31st Julj, 1826. j 

Resolved, unanimously, That the thanks of this board be presented to- 
his hoQOur William A. Duee, for the excellent eulogiac Oration on the 
occasion of the death of the Patriots, John Adams and Thomas Jeffer- 
son, delivered by him this day at the request of the Common Council ; 
and that the Committee of Arrangements wait upon him with this reso- 
lution, and solicit a copy for publication. 

[Extract from the minutes.] 

P. HOCHSTKASSER, acrA% 






AN EULOGY, &e 



JM ever, Americans, since we became a people, 
has any portion of our countrymen convened on 
an occasion more impressive and interesting 
than the present. But a few weeks ago, we 
united with our fellow-citizens from one end of 
this vast continent to the other, to celebrate in 
our respective spheres, the jubilee of our free- 
dom ; and whilst in the temple of the living 
God, we poured forth our thanks to him for the 
blessing ; or at the festive board, recalled the 
names, and recounted the deeds, of the men 
most instrumental in producing it ; the two 
veteran statesmen, the most eminent amongst 
the surviving patriarchs of the Revolution ; who, 
next to Washington, had in succession held the 
highest station in the government ; each, in his 
lurn, like hira, receiving it, as the best reward 



4 

tlie people could bestow ; both these illustrious 
patriots, on the same day, within a few hours of 
each other, and at the completion of the fiftietli 
year, since they had together signed that decla- 
ration, from which their country dates its inde- 
pendence ; both in extreme old age, (as if their 
lives had been preserved to consecrate that day,) 
were, by the gentlest and most similar transi- 
tions, removed from this earthly scene, and 
with equal tranquility, each yielded his immortal 
spirit to the Hand that gave it. 

In this splendid coincidence of events, my 
countrymen ; in this unparalleled concurrence 
of stupendous circumstances ; what candid and 
enlightened mind, what grateful and ingenuous 
heart, hesitates to acknowledge an omniscient 
and benignant Providence 1 Or, who fails to 
perceive, from the position or prospects of his 
lown, or of some other country, a purpose worthy 
the interposition of a superintending Deity? 
Had either of these great and venerable men 
been summoned to the world of spirits, on th^ 
day that both departed ; or had they, on any 
other day, expired together ; it would, in either 
case, have seemed sufficient to excite our won- 
der. By some, it would have been hailed as aij 
omen of good fortune ; and received by others, 
as a demonstration of divine regard. But is 
there one amongst us, who, when he heard it 
rumoured that the two most conspicuous of the 
threq remaining signers of the Declaration qf 



5 

Independence, and the last survivors of those 
deputed to prepare it ; that Adams and Jeffer- 
son had both died on the jubilee anniversary of 
the day that declaration issued : Is there one, I 
ask, who did not distrust the rumour as too 
marvellous to be true 1 And when the report 
was in every minute particular confirmed, is 
there one here, who believed these combi- 
ned occurrences to be the effect of chance 1 
No ! fellow-citizens ! There is not one ; there 
are none such here, or elsewhere to be found. 
The coldest sceptic must have ceased to doubt, 
and the daring infidel must have begun to fear, 
that there is an eternal, self-existent God, who, 
with wisdom inscrutable, and immeasurable 
power, controuls the fate of individuals, and 
overrules the destiny of nations. 

Under the influence of such feelings, friends 
and fellow-countrymen, have Ave assembled in 
this sacred place ; not to lament, but to com- 
memorate our dead ; to contemplate the exam- 
ple of their lives ; and to expatiate on the sub- 
lime moral their lives and deaths have both 
afforded us. 

No true American, capable of reflection, can 
meditate upon the events of the last half cen- 
tury, without feeling that his country has enjoyed 
the peculiar favor of the Supreme Governor of 
the World. At the commencement of that pe- 
riod, our immediate ancestors began to reap the 
;|ruits of thtit constancy and perseverance by 



which their fathers " in the old tim^ before 
them," had been induced to seek, in the wilds 
of this newly discovered continent, an asylum 
from religious and political intolerance. 

They had subdued the forest in the vicinity of 
the shores where their forefathers had landed. 
They had explored the rivers piercing the inter- 
minable hills which seemed ranged as barriers 
against their progress to the west. They had 
penetrated to the fertile plains beyond the sour- 
ces of those rivers, and had discovered others 
emptying into inland seas connected with each 
other, skirting the northern borders, and stretch- 
ing to the western confines of the land ; and 
they had visited the mighty cataract, where 
the accumulated waters have overthrown the 
jTdountain wall, and forced their passage to the 
,ocean. 

Apprised thus of the natural benefits of their 
situation, they had not merely become reconci- 
led to their lot, but rejoiced that their fathers 
had taken refuge in this land of promise. Even 
the good old pilgrim^ of the former race, had 
confessed that their " lines had fallen in plea- 
sant places," and had ceased to regret the com- 
forts and refinements of European civilization. 
Their sons had never known their sacrifices or 
their privations ; and Time, the great peace- 
maker, had obliterated the remembrance of their 
fathers' wrongs. For themselves, they enjoyed 
a complete toleration in all matters of religion, 



SLfkd the essentials of political and civil liberty 
bad in practice been allowed to them. 

Rapidly increasing in numb^s, they were al- 
ready strong enough to defend themselves against 
the hostile tribes still lurking within their ter- 
ritories ; and to repel the invasions of more 
civilized enemies, from a bordering province. 
They had acquired experience in war. At home, 
they had secured peace ; and were steadily ad- 
vancing in agriculture and all the useful arts of 
eivil and domestic life. Abroad, they had pur- 
sued a commerce, which, though restricted by 
the jealous spirit of colonial monopoly, was the 
more profitable from their freer intercourse with 
their sister colonies in the islands, and from 
their almost exclusive possession of the great 
fisheries on their own coasts. 

To improve these advantages, they were bles- 
sed with industry, frugality, enterprise, and in- 
telligence ; and with equal probity and skill, 
they availed themselves of all their physical and 
moral resources, to acquire wealth and honor, 
prosperity and happiness. Nor were their efforts 
fruitless ; for they had already become rich and 
powerful enough to excite the cupidity, and 
alarm the jealousy of the mother country. A 
revenue was attempted to be drawn from them, 
by the paramount authority of a British Parlia- 
ment. But though well disposed to bear their 
fair proportion of the public burdens, when con- 
stitutionally required, the ftiture founders of the 



8 

American Republic were as resolute t<% with- 
hold the contribution even of a nominal sum, 
when exacted by a legislature in which they 
were not represented. It was the principle for 
which they contended. The inseparable con- 
nection between taxation and representation, 
was maintained by them as a fundamental axiom ; 
and sooner than compromise their unalienable 
right to the enjoyment of their private property 
without surrendering the smallest portion of it 
for public purposes, except by their own con- 
sent ; the descendants of Hampden, of Russell, 
and of Sidney, and the disciples of Milton, of 
Harrington, and of Locke, were prepared to 
stake all they possessed on the issue of resis- 
tance. The great Charter of English liberty 
they claimed as their birth-right ; its immortal 
vindicators, as their ancestors ; and notwith- 
standing their affection for the land to which 
they owed their origin and laws ; notwithstand- 
ing their attachment to the nation with whom 
they claimed a common language and descent ; 
they deliberately resolved, rather than submit to 
usurpation, to sever the ties which held them in 
allegiance to a parent government, and connect- 
ed them in friendship with a kindred people. 

In the struggle which ensued, it was soon ap- 
parent upon whom the mantles of the great 
Apostles of English liberty had fallen ; for in 
the American Congress were collected individu- 
als, not only worthy of the blood of the martyr^ 



from which they had sprung, but whose wisdom 
and fortitude, whose virtue and eloquence would 
liavc shed a lustre on the brightest days of 
Greece or Rome. So true is it, that great oc- 
casions produce the talents equal to their exi- 
gencies ; or, rather, so true is it, my country- 
men, that the all bounteous Ruler of the Uni- 
verse, whenever he purposes to exalt a nation, 
calls forth the faculties of his intellectual crea- 
tures, in correspondence with the great design. 
In this august assembly, Adams and Jefferson 
were amongst the most conspicuous. They 
came as the respective delegates of the two 
Provinces at that time the most important in the 
Confederacy; and the most forward and resolute 
in the assertion of their rights. Hand in hand 
they had approached the contest ; and hand in 
hand, and in the foremost rank, appeared their 
chosen sons, worthy and fit to represent them. 
The one descended from intrepid sufferers for 
conscience' sake ; the other sprung from a gayer 
and chivalric race of bold adventurers for 
fame and freedom. Both were in " the prime 
and vigor of their manhood," and each was dis- 
tinguished for natural endowments, as well as 
for extensive acquirements ; for strength of un- 
derstanding, solidity of judgment, firmness of 
principle, liberality of sentiment, and rectitude 
of intention and of conduct. They met on high, 
but equal ground ; and seem to have been drawn 
together by sympathy of character as w^ell as of 



10 

opinions. They were members of the same 
proiiBssion, and had pursued it in that liberal and 
honorable spirit, by which the study and prac- 
tice of the law tend to enlarge the capacity of the 
mind, as well as to sharpen and invigorate its 
faculties. From principle, both were inflexible, 
devoted patriots ; by intuition, if not by educa- 
tion, statesmen. The one was an orator ; the 
other a philosopher ; and if Adams had attained 
more celebrity for eloquence, Jefferson was 
more highly estimated for the written produc- 
tions of his genius. If the former possessed 
greater practical knowledge of affairs, the latter 
was richer in the resources of speculative wis- 
dom; and whatsoever quality or acquisition 
appeared deficient in the one, was to be found 
in the character or talents of the other ; so that 
between them, they combined every requisite 
which, at the impending crisis, could render 
their services so useful, so inestimable to their 
country. 

And most auspiciously were those services 
united on that momentous occasion, when Con- 
gress, having drawn the sword, determined 
to throw away the scabbard, and were about to 
resolve, that " the United Colonies" were, *•' and 
of right ought to be, free and independent 
States." Then it was, that Jefferson and Adams 
were associated with Franklin, Sherman, and 
Livingston, to prepare a solemn declaration, an- 
nouncing and justifying that determination to 



11 

tiie world. The two former were deputed by 
their colleagues, to perform the office ; and an 
amicable contest ensued between them, in 
which each pressed upon the other, the honor- 
able task of drawing up the document. Adams 
fm ally prevailed ; and thus the duty of compo- 
sing it, devolved on Jefferson. 

Never was public trust more ably or sati;$- 
factorily performed. The declaration thus 
produced, established the lasting fame of its 
author, as a scholar, a statesman, and a pat- 
riot : for its principles were sound and en- 
lightened ; its statements forcible and clear ; 
its style animated, nervous, and impressive ; 
its tone calm, dignified and firm ; and above 
all, it responded in langnage and sentiment 
to the voice and feelings of the nation. As 
a public measure, its immediate effects were 
decisive ; and its beneficial consequences are 
not yet to be estimated. It disarmed the treach- 
erous ; it rallied the faithful and the bold ; it 
encouraged the timid, confirmed the dubious ; 
and it pledged the lives and fortunes, and the 
sacred honor of the people, as well as of their re- 
presentatives, to maintain the rights and princi- 
ples it had asserted. It secured our own free- 
dom ; and offered to the oppressed of other na- 
tions, and of other times, an example, as well as 
precepts, which never will be lost on them. It 
gave the first impulse to the protracted struggle 
for liberty in France. Its spirit once animajeri 



12 

I lie patriots of Spain; and will awaken tliem 
again. It still lives in their descendants in our 
southern continent, and cheers the last lingering 
hopes of Greece ; and will yet revive them ! 
Yes, fellow-countrymen ! the principles' pro- 
claimed in the Declaration of American Inde- 
pendence, have not only produced their fruits 
on this wide continent, and been disseminated 
on the wastes of Europe ; but before the revolu- 
tion of another jubilee, they will take root and 
flourish in every soil and climate under heaven ! 
The march of Light, of Knowledge, and of 
Truth is irresistible, and Freedom follows in 
their train ! Well, then, did your Adams, at the 
time, predict the rising glories of the day it issu- 
ed ; and well did your Jeiferson, on his bed of 
death, pray but to witness once more its recur- 
rence, and with his latest sigh, breathe fortii 
his gratitude for the unexampled blessing ! 

Such, fellow-citizens, is the imperfect sketch 
the occasion permits, of the connected services 
of Jefferson and Adams, at the era of Independ- 
ence ; and such the transient view that time 
allows, of the effects and promise of their joint 
exertions. Although afterwards transferred to 
different scenes, their separate efforts were in 
proportion honorable to themselves as individu- 
als, advantageous to their country, and important 
to mankind. For the residue of the war, Ad- 
ams was employed as the representative of the 
infant Republic, at various European courts ; 



in ncgociating loans to provide sustenance 
for its armies, and in forming alliances to 
aid the cause in which they were engaged. In 
both these objects he was successful ; nor were 
his labors intermitted until he had co-operated 
in concluding that treaty by which the inde- 
pendence of this country was finally acknow- 
ledged by Great Britain ; and the two nations, 
who had been declared " enemies in war," had 
" in peace" become "friends." 

During this interval, Jefferson had returned 
to his native State ; and after having been enga- 
ged by public authority, in revising and digesting 
its laws, and conforming their provisions to the 
liberal spirit of the new government, he was, at 
a most critical period, elected its chief magis- 
trate. Having successfully co-operated with 
our national friend, and %.te national guest La 
Fayette, in delivering his State from invasion, 
he returned at the expiration of his executive 
office, once more to its legislature ; and de- 
voted w^hat leisure the intermission of his 
public duties allowed him, to the composition 
of his " Notes on Virginia ;" that work on 
which his reputation in literature and science 
is principally founded. It was not long, how- 
ever, before he was again delegated to the 
Continental Congress ; and that body, w^ith its 
characteristic discernment, soon resolved to en- 
gage the talents of Jefferson as well as of Ad- 
ams, in the diplomatic service of their country. 



H 

By another of those remarkable coincidences 
which liave distinguished their public lives, both 
were named in the commission to negociate the 
peace with Great Britain ; and Jefferson was 
only prevented by an accidental detention, from 
uniting with Adams jn the signature of the 
Treaty. They were, however, subsequently 
joined in arranging terms of commercial inter- 
course, with the maritime powers of Europe ; 
and were ultimately settled as resident plenipo- 
tentiaries, at its two principal courts ; Adams 
at London, and Jefferson in France. 

In those respective stations they remained, 
until, upon the adoption of the present Constitu- 
tion, they were both recalled from Europe. The 
one to occupy, under Washington, the second 
office in the national government ; and the other 
to superintend the important department of its 
foreign affairs. During his residence in Eng- 
land, Adams had published his " Defence of the 
American Constitutions," in answer to the at- 
tacks of certain British writers, on those of the 
states severally, and upon the old confederation. 
From some of the doctrines advanced in this 
work, Jefferson was supposed to dissent ; but 
as the new Constitution had been formed in their 
absence, they had neither of them taken part in 
the public discussions to which it had given rise, 
and which had not yet subsided. Their personal 
feelings, therefore, had never been implicated 
in that controversv ; althoui?h it was well under- 



15 

feloocl that they entertained different views in 
regard to the new Confederation : and subse- 
quent events rendered it more clearly manifest, 
that, whilst the Vice-President fully approved 
of the federal system as it had gone into opera- 
tion, that scheme of government was not, in 
every respect, conformable to the opinions of 
the Secretary of State. The latter, neverthe- 
less, as well as the former, gave a fair and effi- 
cient support to the administration of Washing- 
ton ; and the official correspondence, which he 
conducted upon the most embarrassing and de- 
licate questions which arose under it, affiDrded 
the complete vindication of its most important 
and most contested measures. Apprehensive, 
however, of future disagreement with liis col- 
leagues, Jeffisrson honourably withdrew from 
his office before Washington had left the govern- 
ment ; and carried with him into a retirement 
which he long had coveted, the undiminished 
confidence of the Father of his Country, the 
unbounded attachment of his friends, and the 
universal respect and esteem of his fellow- 
citizens. Nor was he drawn from his retreat, 
until called to the chair which Adams had left 
vacant, upon his elevation to the seat of Wash- 
ington. 

The former colleagues and associates had 
now become rivals, and were claimed as the 
respective heads of the two great parties into 
^vhich their country was divided. The relative 



1(5 

strength and numbers of these parties were 
nearly balanced ; their confidence was equal ; 
their zeal unabated : and though Adams had 
prevailed in the first general contest between 
them, Jefferson was successful in the last. A 
complete transfer of political power was the 
consequence. But notwithstanding the warfare 
between the parties had seemed to threaten 
the peace of the nation, no violent change of 
measures, or of system followed, to put to 
hazard its permanent welfeire : And those who 
had apprehended this result, if not blinded 
by fear or prejudice, were soon persuaded 
that neither the existence of the government 
was to be endangered, the security it afforded 
impaire^, nor its essential principles of admi- 
nistration altered. 

So far as the prevailing differences of opi- 
nion had arisen from a contrariety of views 
in regard to the federal Constitution, so far in- 
deed were they founded in a difference of 
principle. But much of this original discord 
had been harmonized by compromises in the 
trame and structure of the government itself, 
by the spirit in which it was administered, 
or by actual changes of sentiment wrought by 
the convictions of experience ; whilst the more 
violent and direct conflict of political sentiment 
bore reference to the war existing at the 
time in Europe, and being thus temporary in 
its nature, subsided with the cause in which 



17 

it had originated. Before the close of Jef- 
ferson's administration, Adams had expressed 
his approbation of the course of policy pursued 
by his successful competitor ; and the disciples 
and successors of Jefferson recurred to those 
measures of his predecessor, of which experi- 
ence had demonstrated the wisdom or the ne- 
cessity. Between the venerable chiefs them- 
selves, a mutual confidence was re-established ; 
and from their respective retirements they main- 
tained at intervals a friendly correspondence, 
terminating only with their lives. 

Thus these illustrious Statesmen not only sur- 
vived the causes by which they had been so 
long and widely separated ; but lived to revive 
the sympathies, and realize the hopes, which 
liad united them in early life ; to witness the 
triumph of those principles for which they had 
mutually contended ; and to enjoy in the reputa- 
tion, prosperity, and union of their country, th© 
reward of those services, which, whether in con- 
cert or apart, they both had rendered it. And 
when they died, as if Heaven had deigned to 
approve those services, and hallow that reward, 
they died together ! How mysterious ! yet how 
merciful the event ! And what an instructive 
spectacle do not we, my countrymen, present, 
who are here with one accord assembled, to pay 
the last sad tribute to their worth ! We, who 
participated in the exasperated passions and 



18 

fierce contentions by which they were once se- 
parated and estranged ; who were arrayed un- 
der their respective banners, friend against 
friend, and brother against brother, now here 
united heart and voice, to solemnize with equal 
rites, their common obsequies ! 

Such deaths as theirs, indeed, we cannot 
mourn ;but come to celebrate, in joy, for the mer- 
cy they reveal, in thankfulness for the admoni- 
tion they impart. The commemoration of events 
like these ; the contemplation of a scene like 
this, elevate our thoughts from Earth to Heaven, 
lead us to look more reverently on the ways of 
Providence, and point us to the source of every 
temporal good. They serve to endear the more 
to us our public institutions, and to assure us of 
their excellence and stability. They inculcate 
lessons of forbearance and moderation to regu- 
late our own future conduct, and enforce those 
precepts of good will and charity to others, which 
bear the impress of divine authority. Nor are 
they intended for ourselves alone : The events 
we celebrate, the spectacle we here present, 
will have their influence in another land, and 
swell the bosoms of another People. If these 
signal coincidences in the lives and deaths of 
our departed sages ; if the prolonged existence 
of their sole remaining colleague ; of him who 
hazarded the richest venture on our inde^ 
pendence, and still survives its living monii- 



19 

ment ; if these be deemed to indicate a divine 
approval of the cause of freedom, they hold 
forth a beacon of encouragement to deserted 
Greece, sufficient to rouse her from despair ; 
and though abandoned by surrounding Christen- 
dom, the descendants of the warriors of Con- 
stantino, will discern afar off in the west, a sign 
as palpably revealed from Heaven, as that which 
led their ancestors to victory. 

But while we indulge these fervent wishes for 
the success of others, let us not foster a pre- 
sumptuous hope, my countrymen, in favour of 
ourselves. Let us never forget, that in propor- 
tion to the benefits bestowed on us, are our obli- 
gations and responsibility increased ; and let us 
endeavor to avoid the dangers incident to too 
strong a confidence of security. Let us resolve 
to convert every benignant dispensation to its 
obvious ends of practical improvement ; and 
whilst we draw a veil over the frailties of the 
dead, and cherish the remembrance of their 
virtues, let us frequently recur to the examples 
of their lives, and advert to the union of their 
souls in death. Should the institutions of our 
country be assailed by intestine violence, or 
their existence threatened by local jealousies 
and geographical distinctions, let us revert to 
the national principles and catholic feelings of 
the two great chieftains of the North and South ; 
and remember the auspicious day that blended, 



20 

as we hope, their kindred spirits in their flight 
to Heaven. And whilst thus studious to repress 
the germs of rising animosities, let the remem- 
brance of our past dissensions be buried in the 
graves of ADAMS and of JEFFERSON. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




01 1 896 726 4 



